ABC Cancels ‘Black-ish’ Episode Over Political ‘Creative Differences’

ABC has taken the rare step of pulling an episode over its political content. A recent episode of Black-ish has been shelved indefinitely over “creative differences” with showrunner Kenya Barris, owing to its commentary on the state of the country.

Variety reveals that February 27 episode “Please, Baby, Please” was pulled from airing and replaced with reruns, and ABC has no intent to make the episode available in any capacity. The episode was to feature Anthony Anderson’s Dre caring for his infant son by improvising a bedtime story that “conveys many of Dre’s concerns about the current state of the country.” Another scene was to feature Dre and his son Junior arguing over athletes kneeling during the national anthem. ABC acknowledged that Black-ish has trafficked in political content before, but said no compromise could be reached this time:

One of the things that has always made ‘Black-ish’ so special is how it deftly examines delicate social issues in a way that simultaneously entertains and educates. However, on this episode there were creative differences we were unable to resolve.

Added Barris:

Given our creative differences, neither ABC nor I were happy with the direction of the episode and mutually agreed not to air it. ‘Black-ish’ is a show that has spoken to all different types of people and brought them closer as a community and I’m so proud of the series.

It isn’t clear if Barris or Black-ish creatives will continue to pursue some distribution for the episode, so stay tuned.